Wouldn't say he set them back. Yes, he did go after older players but those players are still effectful. GMRH targeted declining older players (Rutta, Granlund, Petry, Bonino, etc) that really did not do much. Dubas is a GM that actual likes to talk and talk about his plan and he has, so far, been very accurate on his past words. The team still needs help w/ their Bottom D pair and 4th line (but we all know why they are failing miserably.. *cough* 77 & 2) but it is nice seeing Shea, Zohorna playing a big part in this team so far. It just sucks how we don't play more of these types of players (younger guys that actually give a **** and play their hearts out) compared to a Carter or Ruhwedel.

(I'm currently praying for Hinostroza to slide into 4RW for Carter).

BOTH


Old team especially in all the key areas, lack of prospects, youth throughout system existed before Dubas, and they missed playoffs.

Most moves were for older guys, added to the existing old guys and a ton of league minimum old guys to paper over the fact that the prospects are bad.

Problem existed before dubas and I dont think he had much choice but to double down, his first acts as GM couldn;t be to trade letang, crosby, malkin, etc....

Maybe a little of both. Karlsson was such a boom or bust trade and so far it's hasn't had the effect that they wanted. It shouldn't really be a surprise his strengths hardly out weight his weaknesses.

The way I look at it is they're 6th in the league in xGF% - so I have a hard time blaming the GM for any roster construction issues. It's not like they're getting dominated night in night out. They're "outplaying" the opposing team almost every game - by that I mean outshooting, out chancing, and out expecting the opposition.

They're just struggling to finish chances - which has been an issue for years before Dubas, so can't blame him there. And aren't getting timely saves when they have defensive lapses. So overall, no, I don't think we can say Dubas has set them back. He was a bit handcuffed coming in - limited cap space, lots of guys on NMCs, limited assets to trade. The only signing he made that has shown to be not too great so far imo is Graves. People will point to Jarry, and he hasn't been great, but goalie options were incredibly limited.

Overall I agree - but why are we still acting like Ruhwedel is costing this team when there isn't really anything to back that up?

He's first on the team in xGF% by a mile for players that have played 6+ games. If anybody else had a 64% xGF% we'd be talking about how amazing they are

You really didn't have anything in terms of prospect capital or sellable pieces (besides guentzel bc there's no way the team is trading crosby or malkin), and so going for it as much as possible was really the only option

They refuse to believe it’s not 2017 anymore. Sullivan only knows one way to coach and they know one way to play. They want to out skate and out score everyone every night and they haven’t been able to do it. Dubas got a lot of things right but his biggest mistake was paying Jarry. Having said that it’s clear Sullivan and the staff wanted him back so that’s also more to blame on him.

Our failures belong to the following people in this order:

1 Mike Sullivan

2 Hextall and Burke (yes many of you will put them at one but Sully never even tried to make coaching adjustments even with their bad rosters)

3 The stars of this team who refuse to change. Yes most of them are still very good to elite but they should be willing to buy into a more cautious brand of hockey without the aggressive forechecking game Sully uses.

4 The new owners for refusing to start a rebuild. You can start the rebuild and still have stars.

I think there are a lot of things. The first is the coaching hasn't been great. The Powerplay is bad and they should change it up, but I doubt Rierden will do that. Second I think that Jarry has been bad as of late. He can probably pull it together later, but right now I think they should split games between him and hellberg until he proves he has won the job. If things don't start to get better, they will probably fire sully. He is a good coach, but I wouldn't be surprised if his message has gone stale